I've never heard of a physical keyboard on the Passion. All the rumors keep saying that the Passion will be an Android 2.0, 1GHz Snapdragon phone. Basically the same guts as the HTC HD2 except with Android.

Of course, they're plenty of rumors of where the phone is going, the strongest rumor currently being Verizon (I read the same thing on Boy Genius Report - HTC Passion could hit stores either by Black Friday or by Christmas, whichever they're ready for first).

So, no slide-out keyboard, but better hardware than the Moto Droid (and way better than Eris). If this thing runs Android 2.0 and SenseUI, it'll be the phone to beat, I think.

Engadget guys I think got to play with the HD2 which is essentially the same hardware. They mentioned in a podcast that this phone is the sex. And that was with Windows Mobile 6.5 running on it. What stood out to me was they said it was hands down the best touch keyboard they'd ever used, better than the iPhone even. Largely due to the huge screen so plenty of space for the keyboard and such.

What I find really interesting about this phone is that if the rumors pan out, it will be the 3rd Droid phone on Verizon in about a month and a half time frame. That's amazing and it really brings into perspective the Droid Stealth commercials: www.youtube.com­/watch­?v­=o9fXYQjwR0w

Boy genius report has also reported that there are even more Android phones coming to Verizon in 2010. So the droid invasion is literally a bombardment of Android phone releases on Verizon.

These three phones (Droid, Droid Eris, Droid Passion) really have something for everyone. It will be interesting to see if any of these incoming Droid phones will have a form factor like a Palm Pixi (full QWERTY without slide out keyboard, smaller screen size)